No one's saying Linus should be -passive- about his point, just not hostile. Here is a shorted, edited version of his post without the offputting aggression:
"The user doesn't care.
Pushing the blame around doesn't help anybody. The only thing that helps is
Fedora being helpful, not being obstinate.
Also, the fact is, that from a Q&A standpoint, a memcpy() that "just does the
right thing" is simply _better_. Quoting standards is just stupid, when there's
two simple choices: "it works" or "it doesn't work because bugs happen".
Reality is what matters. When glibc changed memcpy, it created problems. Saying
"not my problem" is irresponsible when it hurts users.
And pointing fingers at Adobe and blaming them for creating bad software is
_doubly_ irresponsible if you are then not willing to set a higher standard for
your own project. And "not my problem" is not a higher standard.
So please just fix it.
The easy and technically nice solution is to just say "we'll alias memcpy to
memmove - good software should never notice, and it helps bad software and a
known problem"."
Not being an ass isn't difficult with practice, and it can even save time when communicating.
That's just it. He's not being particularly hostile. He's being blunt.
Go back and look at the thread. Linus isn't wading in with abuse. He's a solid part of the discussion from the start (I stopped counting his responses when I got to 7 in the first 50) and at least for those first 50 he's polite as everyone seems to demand him being. Explaining both his point about the function and about the user-doesn't-care view, repeatedly, politely - just as all the naysayers in this thread are demanding of him.
Heaven forfend Linus actually show frustration at having to repeat himself again and again, like an ordinary human would!
"The user doesn't care.
Pushing the blame around doesn't help anybody. The only thing that helps is Fedora being helpful, not being obstinate.
Also, the fact is, that from a Q&A standpoint, a memcpy() that "just does the right thing" is simply _better_. Quoting standards is just stupid, when there's two simple choices: "it works" or "it doesn't work because bugs happen".
Reality is what matters. When glibc changed memcpy, it created problems. Saying "not my problem" is irresponsible when it hurts users.
And pointing fingers at Adobe and blaming them for creating bad software is _doubly_ irresponsible if you are then not willing to set a higher standard for your own project. And "not my problem" is not a higher standard.
So please just fix it.
The easy and technically nice solution is to just say "we'll alias memcpy to memmove - good software should never notice, and it helps bad software and a known problem"."
Not being an ass isn't difficult with practice, and it can even save time when communicating.